EliKuka

Propaganda of Photographing

Most people like to be photographed against a beautiful background. This became clear with the appearance of digital photography. We are constantly confronted by vast numbers of these digital images on the Internet. People take a snapshot of themselves under a waterfall, on a mountain, by the seashore, in front of paintings, city monuments, architectural structures or luxury goods.

Unfortunately, in many museums a separate photo ticket must be purchased if you want an image of yourself with a work of art, and it’s completely forbidden to take photos of some items.

At this exhibition we propose that visitors insert themselves in an artwork and become part of it, then take a picture with their own camera or mobile. The exhibits will be accompanied by instructions explaining how to behave for each given work: in some cases the viewer/model must precisely follow the rules of these instructions while other works presuppose wide-ranging freedom of action and people can improvise, assume diverse poses and create different figurations with their bodies. Importantly, it must be complicated to get through the exhibition alone: at least two people, the photographer and model, should be involved in the photography process.

You can imagine the exhibition as three-tier: the first tier is artworks without the public; the second the process of photographing (the performance tier); the third is the photographs obtained and their subsequent posting on social networks to delight your friends, relatives and acquaintances. When the spectator comes to an exhibition various questions occur: Can I become a work of art? Is my beauty ready to connect with the beauty materialised by the artist? Will I look boring or absurd in the photo? What will my friends say? So the viewer is faced with a decision: to be photographed, or not.